1. Related Applications
This application is a non-provisional of and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/256,754, filed Oct. 30, 2009, titled “System, Method, and Program Product for Synthesizing Non-Constrained and Constrained Heat Exchanger Networks and Identifying Optimal Topology for Future Retrofit”; is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/575,743, filed Oct. 8, 2009, titled “System, Method, and Program Product for Targeting and Identification of Optimal Process Variables in Constrained Energy Recovery Systems”; and is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/767,217, filed Apr. 26, 2010, titled “System, Method, and Program Product for Synthesizing Non-Constrained and Constrained Heat Exchanger Networks,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/767,315, filed Apr. 20, 2010, titled “System, Method, and Program Product for Synthesizing Heat Exchanger Networks and Identifying Optimal Topology for Future Retrofit” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/715,255, filed. Mar. 11, 2010, titled “System, Method, and Program Product for Targeting and Optimal Driving Force Distribution in Energy Recovery Systems;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/768,084, filed Jun. 25, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,698,022, titled “System, Method, and Program Product for Targeting an Optimal Driving Force Distribution in Energy Recovery Systems,” and U.S. Patent Application No. 60/816,234, filed Jun. 23, 2006, titled “Method and Program Product for Targeting and Optimal Driving Force Distribution in Energy Recovery Systems,” each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of energy recovery systems, and in particular, to systems, program product, and methods related to synthesizing a heat exchanger network for a process or cluster of processes including a plurality of hot process streams to be cooled and a plurality of cold process streams to be heated.